By Mark Vester
After gaining a draw against WBC super featherweight champion Marco Antonio Barrera in May, only to have the result changed to split-decision win for Barrera, Rocky Juarez is going to get his shot at revenge.
Originally, after 12 rounds of heated action that saw Barrera come out strong in the first half of the fight and Juarez take over the second half of the fight, the scores were 115-114 for Juarez, 115-113 for Barrera and 114-114 for the draw. After the decision was announced and the live HBO telecast went off the air, two of the three judges noticed errors on their scorecards. Judge Ken Morita, originally scoring the bout a 114-114 draw, said he incorrectly added up the rounds and changed his card to 115-114 in favor of Barrera, which gave the champion a split-decision win. Judge Anek Hongtongkam, also incorrectly added up the rounds on his card, which originally was read as 115-113 for Barrera, and later changed to 115-114 for Barrera.
Most experts thought the rematch would never happen, but Juarez told the Houston Chronicle that he always felt that Barrera would fight him again to try and redeem himself.
"People didn't believe he'd take the rematch, but as a fighter, I knew he was going to take it either because he believed he lost, or the fact that when he went back home to Mexico, his own people, I'm sure he had his doubters who probably felt he lost the fight. So any fighter doesn't like to win like that. And let's just say this: It's my rematch, but I guess you could say it's both our rematches," Juarez said.
The bout is slated to take place on September 16 at the MGM Grand Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, as the main event of an HBO pay-per-view telecast.